Combat warrants limit raids, cause worry over leaks

Army forces in Afghanistan must obtain “warrants” to enter local homes before setting out on combat missions, causing concern among soldiers and Afghan forces over potential leaks that could imperil missions.

As NATO forces take a back seat in operations, the Afghan government now bans some U.S. conventional forces from running independent raids and mandates that U.S. forces share operational details with joint coordination cells, said Maj. Joe Buccino, an Army spokesman in Paktika province.

The National Directorate of Security in Afghanistan oversees warrant processes conducted by both American and Afghan forces.

Though corruption has long plagued Afghan governmental agencies, a risk of leaks must be considered in the context of the U.S. transition of control to Afghans, Buccino said.

“We are now in a stage of the mission in Afghanistan where Afghans have got to be doing the security,” he said. “If that means we assume risk with operational security, then we do so. We are no longer at the point in Afghanistan where the capture of one group of high-value targets is going to turn the tide of the war.

“Americans don’t just ask for permission and then go hit these targets,” he added. “We plan and rehearse with our Afghan partners, so the hazard of leaked information is inherent in the entire process.”

Neither the Afghan government nor NATO has released details about a combat warrant system. The Afghan Ministry of Interior has not answered repeated emails and calls from Army Times.

A similar warrant-based system was enacted by the U.S. military and Iraqi government during the closing months of the Iraq War.

In March, the Afghanistan coalition commander mentioned the Iraq system while testifying about night raids to the Senate Armed Services Committee in Washington.

Marine Gen. John Allen, the International Security Assistance Force commander, lauded a system agreed upon by the U.S. and Iraqi governments during the Iraq War in late 2008.

“That system was successful, but it was successful because we were able to streamline the judicial process in ways that supported the operations rather than impeded the operations,” he said.

The agreement in Iraq came more than a year and a half after a historic troop surge and as the U.S. moved to an “advise and assist” role during the war’s final stage, called Operation New Dawn.

In Afghanistan, outrage by locals and politicians over night raids led to a memorandum of understanding signed by U.S. forces and the Afghan government that shifted control of “special operations” and night raids to Afghan officials.

“The MOU has just codified what was already taking place for months: the transition to Afghan control of all security operations and, in this case, special operations,” Lt. Col. Jimmie Cummings, a coalition spokesman, said in an email to Army Times. “These are Afghan-led special operations and they have been doing this for months … and it has not hindered or slowed the ability of the U.S./Afghan forces in conducting their operations.”

The MOU specified that the Afghan Operational Coordination Groups would approve special operations in the war zone, and Afghan forces would carry out missions with help from U.S. forces, according to the Defense Department.

The MOU was signed less than a year after President Obama announced the U.S. would reduce troop levels that were boosted by a surge in 2010.

Until the MOU, the U.S. and Afghan forces had partnered for more than 95 percent of night operations, Cummings said.

In 2011, ISAF conducted about 2,200 night special operations and “in 90 percent of those cases, we did not fire a single shot,” Cummings said. Civilian casualties occurred in fewer than 35 cases, he added.

The NATO ISAF in Afghanistan is training 12 “Afghan Strike Forces,” he said. Afghans are supposed to lead all operations by the end of 2014.

“The Afghan special operations units have developed at extraordinary speed and are manned by courageous and capable operators,” Allen said in an April release from the Pentagon. “We also recognize the growing capacity of the Afghan judicial system, which will play a vital part not only in the implementation of this agreement but also in the lives of Afghan citizens.”

“So as the end of my second deployment draws closer and closer, I’ve been pondering a thought, related to the question a lot of Marines are asked, and that question is “Why do we do it?”. I’ve come to the realization that the reason we do what we do changes. For example, ask a young man fresh out of boot camp, or even fresh out of high school about to leave for boot camp, and the typical answers you will get will be along the lines of :”I want to fight for/serve my country.” “My family is part of a military tradition” or “I’m doing it for school benefits.”. These are all excellent and admirable reasons for deciding to pick up a rifle and put your life on the line. Now jump ahead a few years, and this same Marine is now a combat veteran, with 1, 2, even 4 or more tours in Iraq or Afghanistan under his belt. You ask this veteran the same question again, and I will bet anything that I hold dear that his answer will be: “I do it for the men to my left and my right, my brothers.”. All those previous reasons, they simply become a byproduct to being out there with your brothers watching each others back. That’s what we are, brothers who have left blood, sweat, and tears on the battlefield. Your best friend back home for 15 years or more will always be just that, a friend, now that is not a bad thing, everyone needs friends in their lives. However, that man you spent just 7 months with in Afghanistan or Iraq, he is now your brother for life. No one will understand what we do or what we go through except for the people who go through it with us.”

♥ ♥ ♥ SSG Travis Mills US Army is the soldier who recently lost all of his limbs from an IED. Michael Green met SSG Mills on April 26th, 2012 at Walter Reed. He was in extreme pain and Michael has just learned that he will be placed in a self induced Coma to deal with this. Please pray with all your heart and soul for this seriously wounded warrior and for his family. ♥ ♥ ♥

Sept. 13, 2010: An Afghan army soldier takes up position during a joint patrol with U.S. army soldiers. (Reuters)

WASHINGTON – The military is under-reporting the number of times that Afghan soldiers and police open fire on American and other foreign troops.

The U.S.-led coalition routinely reports each time an American or foreign solider is killed by an Afghan in uniform. But The Associated Press has learned it does not report insider attacks in which the Afghan wounds — or misses — his U.S. or allied target. It also does not report the wounding of troops who were attacked alongside those who were killed. Read the rest here.

The Afghan man captured on a grainy surveillance video was a known insurgent. And there he was — again — digging a hole for a homemade mine beneath a well-traveled dirt road in Helmand province.

Several Marines in a nearby combat outpost watched the video feed closely, but a decision on what to do fell to 1st Lt. Josh Waddell, executive officer of India Company, who was running the command post on the afternoon of Nov. 1 for 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines.

Waddell, 25, sprang into action, calling his battalion headquarters to get authorization — what military lawyers call “positive identification” — to launch a strike. From there, he hurriedly issued orders to ground patrol units, sniper teams and aircraft hovering nearby, coordinating a complex operation to kill or capture the enemy.

The insurgent was surrounded by a village full of women and children, so Waddell’s decisions required the kind of nuanced judgment call that has become a hallmark requirement of today’s often murky counterinsurgency missions.

Waddell opted against calling in the helicopter gunships. Instead, he ordered a sniper team to home in on the insurgent. The first sniper shot was high and off-target, sending the man sprinting across a patch of farmland. But other shots struck his leg and stomach. The man dropped and rolled into a ditch for cover. Continue reading →

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Quotes

"Do not fear the enemy, for your enemy can only take your life. It is far better that you fear the media, for they will steal your HONOR."
~ Vietnam Pilot

"In combat, honor is obtained by those who do what must be done, not what is allowed by those who refuse to fight or die for their own cause...my extremes pump fear into the enemy for generations come, your extremes cause warriors to bow in the presence of the unworthy, presenting weakness and opportunity ... well, I bow to no man"
~ Antonio Cezar Vega